mcconnell: with the fiscal cliff fast approaching, i feel the need to point out something this morning that's perfectly obvious to most americans but which democrats in washington still don't seem to grasp. i'm referring to the fact that any solution to our spending and debt problem has to involve cuts to out-of-control washington spending. i know that might sound obvious to most people but for all the president's talk about the need for a balanced approach, the truth is he and his democratic allies simply refused to be pinned down on any spending cuts. americans overwhelmingly support some level of cuts to government spending as part of a plan to cut the federal deficit. yet, the president will not commit to it. he refuses to lead on the issue. the president seems to think if all he talks about are taxes and that's all reporters write about, somehow the rest of us will magically forget that government spending is completely out of control and that he himself has been insisting on balance. a couple of weeks ago we saw his plan. after four straight trillion-dollar deficits and two years